In Madhya Pradesh, the game is Arjun Singh vs the Rest

The organisational elections in the ruling party in Madhya Pradesh will re-establish what everyone there has known all along: that Congress(I) Vice-President Arjun Singh is by far the most powerful leader in the state.

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Sreekant Khandekar

June 15, 1986

ISSUE DATE: June 15, 1986

UPDATED: February 4, 2014 14:41 IST

Vora

The organisational elections in the ruling party in Madhya Pradesh will re-establish what everyone there has known all along: that Congress(I) Vice-President Arjun Singh is by far the most powerful leader in the state. In Madhya Pradesh, the game is Arjun Singh vs the Rest - and the Rest are already facing defeat.

The elections will also prove that Chief Minister Motilal Vora continues to be as feeble politically as he was at the time of his appointment. His safety lies in his weakness and in steering a course that will upset none of the established groups, especially Arjun Singh's. In the state Assembly, an estimated 150 to 180 ruling party legislators out of 250 owed their nomination - and therefore loyalty - to Arjun Singh.

Most of Vora's ministerial colleagues are Singh's supporters under whom they had served earlier. Moreover, Vora has yet to summon the courage to displace any of the more than three dozen chairmen of various state corporations and boards who were appointed by his predecessor. And in the organisational elections, dismayed Vora followers say that he is unlikely to make any headway other than in his home district, Durg.

That Arjun Singh, with comrade in arms Digvijay Singh, MP from Guna and president of the MPCC(I), was out to sweep the polls became evident as early as March. Days before the election process was to start in late March, Digvijay Singh reconstituted 11 of the state's 62 district committees.

Says a legislator who supports V.C. Shukla, MP and former Union minister: "As it is more than half the district presidents were from their group. After the blatant reconstitution done before the elections, more than 45 of the 62 district presidents now belong to Singh's group." Indeed, a section of Congressmen has now demanded Digvijay Singh's ouster in the interest of fair elections.

This reconstitution drew protests from across the state, particularly from Raipur, where Shukla has been fighting a last ditch battle to stay alive in state politics. Shukla's supporters were practically absent in the reconstituted committee though 12 were included later to pacify him. Raipur district, comically, now has about 160 office-bearers.

V.C. Shukla: the battle of the castes

Right from stage one, the entire election process has been farcical and is growing more so with every passing week. Indeed, none of those interviewed believed that actual voting would take place, much as Rajiv Gandhi may desire it. Says a minister from Chhattisgarh: "The outcome of election in any district will be decided by a few dozen interested Congressmen, their money power and muscle power."

Complaints started pouring in from the word go. The people who controlled the district committees were accused of withholding membership forms from their political rivals, refusing to accept their membership forms, and admitting members of their own group after the last date. Worst still was the fact that more than three dozen district committees did not even fulfil the basic requirement of publishing and displaying the list of enrolled members after admission. The outcome was that no one got an opportunity to raise objections to bogus membership.

By the end of the campaign, approximately 2.7 million people had been enrolled as primary members of the party on payment of Re 1 each. Since 25 primary members give one active member who actually votes, this gave 108,000 active members. Another 67,000 paid Rs 25 directly to be recognised as active members, giving a total of 175,000 active members for the state. This would mean that every ninth voter in the state is a Congress(I) member and almost every third person who voted for it in the 1984 parliamentary elections is a primary member too!

Almost all over the state the Arjun Singh group's enrolment was the highest. Even in Gwalior, where Union Minister of State for Railways Madhav Rao Scindia is clearly the party's best established leader, the vice- president's group enrolled about 60 per cent of the town's roughly 4,700 active members.

The battle took place in Raipur district where an estimated six lakh primary members have been enrolled.There were heated arguments and scuffles between various groups. And at three in the morning, a group of men broke into the Raipur Congress(I) office, sprinkled petrol on the membership records and set them on fire. Says a dismayed Laxminarayan Induria, a local legislator: "This incident has hurt the party enormously in the area. If party elections are going to promote rivalry rather than uniting us, maybe we should not have them at all. What is everything coming to?"

Party leaders are also upset that observer Harish Rawat, an MP from Uttar Pradesh, was soft on his vice-president. He appointed pro-Arjun Singh men as convenors of a majority of the district scrutiny committees.

Congressmen say that in the ultimate analysis the most crucial appointment will be that of the district returning officers and the pradesh returning officer, who will actually oversee the voting. They will play a crucial role in deciding who has "won". And going by the trend so far, the greatest say in their appointment will be that of Madhya Pradesh strongman Arjun Singh.